Diane's Detox...Let's Heal

We got up on the early side, said our thank yous and good byes to our friends at MM 28 and headed back to Karen’s. The motor home was waiting to be cleaned it out.

The drive up the Keys was much more enjoyable then the drive down had been. I felt as though the most emotional work was behind us. Hosting services for the fiddle player had been exhausting and I was beyond tired, but, it was done. I had no more worries as to whether I would be able to make it through them now. I could sit back and enjoy the scenery. Dr. Susan and I admired the green blue hues of the water as she drove the 70 miles to Tavernier. I was going to miss my monthly trip to Key West.

As soon as we arrived I was anxious to get started at the last big task I had to accomplish while here; getting the years of accumulation out of the RV we bought in 2002. I remember the day we found it on the lot in Key Largo. I’d told Red, if he wanted me to continue traveling with him on the road we had to get something besides friends’ couches and the back of our Chevy Suburban to sleep in.

The day I told him that there we drove to the only motor home sales business in Key Largo to take a look. It was Easter Sunday and the lot was closed but I spotted her through the fence. “That’s the one,” I told him with absolutely no idea what their asking price would be. I just knew we would end up with that funky 20’ cream and green RV.

Red never believed things could be that easy so he looked in every newspaper and made phone calls all afternoon. We drove and looked at several and they were all too big, too old or too new and expensive. The following morning we went back up to the lot, got the key, started it up and asked the salesman what they wanted for this 1986 motor home.

“Twenty seven hundred dollars,” was his answer. Red and I looked at each other and stepped away from the salesman. Red insisted on trying to talk him down and I said he wouldn’t come down but Red said it didn’t hurt to try. We were going to leave with it today.

Red walked back to the salesman and asked if he would take twenty three hundred. The salesman looked at him and said, “That twenty seven hundred is not negotiable.” I quickly asked if they took credit cards and he said they did. I said, “We’ll take it,” and we drove it back to Karen’s house and then to Ohio the following week. I painted the green stripes black, put www.reddisetgo.org on the front and back, built a permanent bed with storage underneath and later put hardwood floors in her. Oh the fun, and the troubles, we had with her and in her. Now it was time to gut her out and get rid of her.

I had a box of garbage bags and tackled the task at hand by setting the bags outside the door and tossing things into them.

“What can we do to help?” the offers came from everyone in the household.

“There’s not enough room for anyone else inside here. When those bags are full you can tie them up and move them to the appropriate piles,” I told them.

I pointed and said, “That pile is going north with Dr. Susan and I, that pile is going to the Salvation Army here in the Keys and that pile is trash. If there is anything you want, grab it. Now I have a lot to do so get out of the way,” I finished my speech and threw something at the bag of trash.

My friends know me well enough to know I can handle work so they just stood back, held bags open, talked to me when I stuck my head out for air and watched things go flying. I kept everything Red had written on, most everything of value I could sell or use, and was proud of letting lots of stuff go to Sally’s, as we affectionately call the Salvation Army in the Keys. Here we go to Sally’s before we go to a department store. It’s amazing what the people from up north give to the Salvation Army.

As the sun was setting, the no-see-ums were coming out and I’d done what I had set out to do. Everything was out of the motor home and I wiped all the surfaces down once. I asked D if she would wipe it all down again. I could pay her once it sold. She said she would be happy to do it for me but that I didn’t have to pay her.

I sat in the driver’s seat to start it and it was as dead as Red was. The battery needed charging and heaven only knows what else was wrong. He hadn’t used it since we bought the Honda del Sol in September 2006. I’d asked him to run it every time he was here but I knew he was usually in a hurry and didn’t keep up with it. So she was not happy and would not start without help.

Well when the Mobil-Mechanic in Key West called with his condolences he said if I needed anything he would help. In fact he had been interested in purchasing the motor home at one time. I would call him on the way north tomorrow. For now I needed to take a shower and take it easy.

I slept very well that night and woke early Sunday morning. I went upstairs to visit with Rainey, gave her a few fly rods and some of Red’s fishing gear. It was raining gently, as if the world were crying for Red’s loss.

She asked me, “So, what is next in the life of Diane?”

I answered her, “I think I have to write the book I have been talking about all these years.” As soon as the words came out of my mouth the sky opened up as though it were making a point of approving. We looked at each other wide-eyed and laughed, “I guess Red approves-or not, I shouldn’t take everything as a message.” The rain slowed down to its gentle cycle again.

“What will it be about?” she asked.

“Well, I think about his music, what someone has to go through when their spouse dies, what I had to go through because he was such a star and had to help his fans, and maybe, later, I will write a book about alcoholism and how it affects peoples lives,” I said dreamily wondering what the book would be about.

The skies opened up again with sheets of torrential rains.

We looked at each other and I asked the heavens, “Do you really want me to tell the whole story?”

We didn’t think it could rain any harder but it did. It was raining so hard it was deafening and we couldn’t talk in normal voices anymore.

“Ok, I’ll tell the whole story, but not all at once,” I yelled over the noise of the heavens approval.

The rain went back to its gentle cycle and we looked at the lakes it had left behind in the roadway. “Wow, that sure seemed like Red was approving, didn’t it?” Rainey said with wide eyes. I agreed with her and told her it seemed as though he’d been around quite a bit and sent messages pretty clearly.

I told her about the heron story and the lights at the house and how I believed in life after life. I had never had anyone close to me die before but I really felt, sometimes, as though he was here. I now understood why people believed in ghosts.

I went downstairs to wake up Dr. Susan, get my stuff together, put a for sale sign on the motor home and get ready to head home. I hoped the RV would sell quickly. I hoped I would never see it again.